A Celebration of Ray Barry

“I paint with a sense of adventure rather than premeditation… I love the poetics of Abstraction”

Ray Barry loved Cornwall and he loved art. 

From 2010 he was a director of the St Ives Society of Artists, and an associate of both the Newlyn and Penwith Society of Artists.

Ray originally started painting in the 1950s whilst working for Cable and Wireless in the Sudan.  He exhibited at the Red Sea Club, Port Sudan and The New Stanley Gallery in Nairobi as he began to hone his artistic talent. 

After his time in the Sudan Ray settled in Cornwall. 

Although by the 1990s Ray was an established artist locally, he took a Fine Art Degree at Falmouth School of Art and graduated in 1997. His studio was in St Ives, then he later moved to Ludgvan near Penzance. He had solo exhibitions at Falmouth Arts Club, the Penzance Arts Club, The Crypt Gallery St Ives,
The Cornerstone Gallery St Ives, Bakehouse Gallery St Ives, as well as jointly exhibiting with fellow artists Jenny Woodhouse, Bob Devereux, Rachel Kantaris, Patricia Dearden, Stephen Dove, John Beer and Victor Bramley.

He was an established fellow artist amongst his peers; a hand written invite to Bryan Pearce’s 75th birthday lay amongst his treasured possessions.

Ray Barry constantly strove to explore colour and textural values with passion,
working primarily in oils and acrylics.  Of his work, he quoted:
“I enjoy creating order out of chaos and conversely 'deconstructing' order to the point of meaningful abstraction….
I paint with a sense of adventure rather than premeditation…I love the poetics of Abstraction”.

Away from his career as an artist, Ray was also a keen stamp collector. His talent and interests overlapped when he created, established and designed stamps for Gugh Island, Isles of Scilly. These were more representational in design and we recently sold a collection of Ray's stamps in our 
July Stamps and Collectors auction. 

Sally Holman lot 129

Amongst a total of 422 lots, we have 109 works by Ray Barry in this, our last Timed Art Sale of 2024.
There is a fantastic selection of other works by a wonderful array of artists, so please have a thorough browse of the catalogue.

The sale is now live and will start closing at 4pm on January 5th 2025. 

Click here to view the entire sale

Stephen Camps, lot 117